An Elderly Professor's Story

By a European practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net)

It was late 1999, after the persecution of Falun Gong in China had begun, when I met an elderly professor who had come to Seattle, USA, to attend a Falun Dafa conference and to visit relatives as well. In a mini-experience sharing discussion, we listened to her experience of Fa-rectification, of when she went to Tiananmen Square on 22^nd July 1999. She was arrested after returning home from Tiananmen Square. Since then, she has been blacklisted by the local police, and whenever any dates considered as being sensitive by the government approached, there were police stationed nearby to watch her. She was so buoyant when she was talking about these things that we could see neither the persecution that she had suffered, nor the perilous environment in China. I was touched deeply, as I truly saw this Dafa practitioner's selflessness, as well as her intrepid nature cultivated from Dafa.

She went back to China three months later, and I also went back to join the Fa-rectification in China in April 2000. Since we contacted each other very often, I got to know her better and better. Before she had practiced Falun Gong, she had suffered from severe heart disease, and had slept on an inclined wooden bed. Otherwise, she would have felt short of breath. She had also suffered from severe cataracts, which made her unable to read. However, after she practiced Falun Gong, she has become free of illnesses, and her body is distinctly younger. She had also regained her menstrual period. She said that she believed in Dafa solidly, since what Teacher Li taught in Zhuan Falun about changes to practitioners' minds and bodies had manifested in her.

This practitioner was trained as a professor of Art, and she knew nothing about computers, but she bought a modern desktop for promoting Dafa. She learned how to access the internet and download articles from Minghui Net, and started to distribute Dafa truth-clarifying materials to other people. She also distributed Teacher Li's new articles to Dafa practitioners in surrounding regions, despite extremely difficult conditions.

After Falun Gong was banned in China, a lot of Falun Gong practitioners started to practice the exercises and study the Fa at home, while playing the exercise music at a low volume. When I went to this practitioner's home for Fa study several times, I found that she always kept the volume loud. In the beginning, I wanted to remind her to be careful, but it also had occurred to me that she always had been doing things like this, so there must have been some attachments in my mind which led me to have these kinds of thoughts. This practitioner's husband had been in a coma. Initially he needed to be fed by a tube through his nose, but after listening to Teacher Li's lectures, it was possible to feed him with a spoon, and he could understand the taped greetings sent from the U.S. by his daughter. I thought through this carefully: This practitioner had been blacklisted by the local police, but she played Teacher Li's lectures in her husband's room without pause. If anyone knocked on the door, she didn't even consider turning off the player, because she was not afraid and remembered Teachers words, "If you are not afraid, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist." ("Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)," Essentials for Further Advancement II)

At the end of 2000, she again went to Tiananmen Square to appeal, and was detained in a police station located in a nearby county. She resisted the persecution solidly and told the police the truth about Falun Dafa the whole time. Later on, even their superintendent came to listen. The following evening, she was released. Just before she left, the police pointed to her and two other practitioners, and said: "These people are not afraid of death." In this way, they stepped out of there in an upright and dignified manner. On her way of home, when police checked the bus to see if there were Beijing-bound Dafa practitioners on it, she found herself sitting under the police's stare, but was not detected, and she successfully returned to the mighty current of Fa-rectification.

In May 2001, this practitioner had to become destitute and homeless, since she was wanted by the police. Initially, she could go to the U.S. to visit relatives; however, soon she was unable to travel because her passport would expire, and she could not go to the police station to renew it. In July, just before I left China, I went to see her. At that moment, she was living in a small room with two other Dafa practitioners. They continued to insist on practicing the exercises, studying the Fa, clarifying the truth of Falun Dafa, and sending forth righteous thoughts together. She was still buoyant as well!

After arriving in Europe, I still think about her all the time. I often hear some information about her. At one point, she had to leave her small room because of an informant turned her in. Afterward, her wages were suspended and her life became very difficult. The latest news is that she continues to be homeless, but that she persists in doing the three things encouraged by Teacher Li for Dafa practitioners during the period of Fa-rectification: to study the Fa well, to clarify the truth, and to send forth righteous thoughts. I would like to wish her well on her path. Finally, let us encourage each other and read Teacher Li's poem, "Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions:"

Righteous Thoughts and Righteous Actions

A Great Enlightened Being does not fear hardship

Having forged an adamantine will

And with no attachment to living or dying

He walks his path of Fa-rectification openly and nobly

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2002/12/2/40298.html

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